Public invited to view design entries for Worcester firefighters memorial
July 1, 2004
Contact:
Link McKie
+1-617-373-8324
+1-617-373-8773 (fax)
l.mckie@neu.edu
WORCESTER, Mass. -- The public is invited Thursday, July 8, to view 150-plus entries submitted to design a memorial for the six Worcester firefighters who died during a warehouse fire in 1999. The public viewing will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 8, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The public is being invited by the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee, which is establishing a memorial and memorial park to honor the firefighters. Members of the public will be able to view the more than 150 design entries on display in Alden Memorial Hall, 100 Institute Road, at WPI.
"The substantial number of entries and the caliber of the designers who have inquired about submitting designs leads our committee to believe that we will have a superlative design for the memorial. This would be the most fitting tribute to the valor of the six brave firefighters who sacrificed their lives for our safety," Michael J. Donoghue, chairman of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee, said.
"Our committee has made a commitment that the public share in the tribute to our fallen heroes, and this public viewing is just one of the ways we are honoring that commitment," Donoghue said.
A blue-ribbon jury is meeting in Worcester Thursday, July 8, and Friday, July 9, to select the five first-stage winners in a two-stage national design competition to determine the ultimate design for the memorial and memorial park. The jury will meet privately to review the 150-plus entries, and to vote on the five first-stage winners.
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee is scheduled to announce the names of the five first-stage winners Monday, July 12. The committee solicited design entries nationwide this past spring.
The $3-million to $5-million memorial and memorial park are to be built through a public fund-raising campaign. The site is next to Worcester Fire Department headquarters off Grove Street on Salisbury Pond across from Institute Park.
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee began working in late 2001 to establish a memorial to honor Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. "Jay" Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer. They died Dec. 3, 1999, trying to save the lives of others in an abandoned warehouse off Route 290 near downtown Worcester. Their deaths were the worst loss of firefighters' lives in more than 20 years in a building fire in America, and the third worst fire in Massachusetts' history.
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Last modified: Aug 12, 2004, 14:12 EDT